Opposition, govt agree to drag ongoing Senate session.

Byline: Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD -- Despite having no serious business in hand, the government and the opposition have agreed to drag the ongoing Senate session for the whole month of February merely to meet the constitutional requirement of remaining in session for a minimum of 110 days in a parliamentary year.

Holding each other responsible for the unusual situation, both the government and opposition members, however, agree that continuing the session for nearly two months only to fulfil a constitutional requirement is tantamount to undermining the sanctity of the Senate, besides bringing a bad name to the parliamentarians.

Article 54(2) of the ConsAtitution states that the 'Senate shall meet for not less than one hundred and ten working days in each year'.

The parliamentary year of the Senate began on March 12 last year, and until Jan 17 this year, the upper house of parliament has been able to meet for only 70 days.

If the three joint sittings are also counted, the Senate has so far remained in session for 73 days, which means that it requires being in session for another 37 days by March 11. Interestingly, the number of actual sittings of the house is only 48 days in the last 10 months as under the rules, the two-day recess sandwiched between the working days is also counted in session days.

Though Leader of the House in the Senate Shibli Faraz admitted this slackness on the part of the government, he put the entire responsibility for it on the opposition.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Faraz, who is a senior member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, agreed that the parliamentary system remained paralysed due to the government's decision to not convene the Senate session for almost four months, but said that 'by doing so, we have saved the government from getting paralysed' which, according to him, would have more adverse effect on the country and people.

The opposition, he alleged, had created an environment which was not conducive to carrying out legislative business in a smooth manner. He said the opposition due to its numerical strength in the Senate was bent upon creating hurdles in the way of legislation, forcing the government to do it through presidential ordinances. He said the opposition during one of the requisitioned sessions had rejected an important ordinance through a disapproval resolution.

Mr Faraz alleged that the opposition was using its numerical strength in the upper house of parliament to put pressure on the government and...

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